By the use of new state-of-the-art techniques (most of them developed in the present study) the authors demonstrate that one specific miRNA (called bantam) recognizes and regulates the translation of the gene clock.

Today, Lloyd and his wife Lesley Creed run their own homestead in Bolinas, California where they tend an extensive organic garden and bantam chickens, grind their own wheat, make their own sourdough, spin their own wool, and continue to build their own structures most recently, a chicken coop with a living roof.

Dontcry, you'd love my backyard flock. I have four roosters, each of which has their own sound, anywhere from a high-pitched screech (the Porcelain Bantam) to a raspy, boorish sounding crow (the standard red rooster). Combined with duck calls (which are quite loud), hen clucks, and pigeon coos, they certainly make a lively chorus in the morning.

The hen house at the fair each year is my favorite place! I just love watching all those different chickens and roosters. Some of them look like they're dressed to the nines for an evening on the town! The crowing makes me giggle every single time...

I was a bit skeptical myself regarding the quality of eggs produced by hand-raised hens until I had them for myself.

The key is to let them eat all the things they would find if they lived in the wild; grass, beetles, worms, etc. My chickens love June bug season. The resulting eggs have a more flavorful and darker colored yolk. Bantam eggs are very good although, as you may have guessed, they can be half the size (or smaller) of a standard chicken egg.

I raise them for their eggs, and they do make great pets if you have the means to keep them. Mine is a flock of mixed breeds which keeps things interesting since each breed boasts it's own unique characteristics and each bird it's own personality. I also have a couple of albino pigeons and a pair of snowy ducks, but they, while being pleasing to the eye, are not nearly as interesting as the chickens.

I used to have an albino rabbit living in the hen house. However, their cohabitation, as I explained earlier in this comment thread, was not conducive to the well being of the hens (even the ones that weren't white and fluffy).

I have a few breeds of bantam (or banty) chickens in my backyard flock. The most interesting looking ones are the white silkies, which look like the offspring of rabbits and chickens (bright white and fluffy feathers).

In fact, if you happen to have a white rabbit living around the farm, you may soon find it and your silky hen engaged in some rather frantic interspecific relations (an image not easily purged from the mind).

Allie, call the birds in,The birds from the sky!Allie calls, Allie sings,Down they all fly:First there cameTwo white doves,Then a sparrow from his nest,Then a clucking bantam hen,Then a robin red-breast.- Robert Graves, 'Allie'.